My thesis "Reliving the Life of Louis Bachelier" which introduces the screenplay: "I, Bachelier (Invisible Man)" is now available as a book!
This book is a verbatim reproduction of the ALM Thesis in literature and creative writing that I have just completed at the extension School at Harvard University. It is a screenplay that brings to life, in dramatic installments, the key events in the life of the Father of Modern Mathematical Finance, Louis Bachelier ( 1870-1946). It is a spellbinding double odyssey of the trials and triumphs of gritty characters that pioneer industries creating intellectual revolutions, against the scorn of titled scientific establishments, against tragedy, at tremendous personal sacrifice. Through multifaceted narratives and circumstances, it emerges as a profound, scientific and artistic, human exploration of the human propensity for prejudice.
http://amzn.to/1S6Byqr
It lets sheds light on the struggles Bachelier had to overcome, as viewed in our time by a
young black mathematician of African origin named K., starting in grad
school in Paris in the mid-90s, and then on to Wall Street, as a
proponent of a new theory of decision making based on a
proto-probabilistic concept called
BICs (Basis Instruments Contracts)
that he has invented.
It spans Bachelier’s life from the death of his
parents to his famous thesis in 1900, to the dramas of the Dreyfus
affair in France, WW I, up to the death of his ephemeral spouse, and the
climactic denial of tenure to him in 1926. The narrative unfolds as K.
himself experience similar struggles and prejudices in modern times
which lead him from Wall Street to inner city life in Newark, NJ, and
then to Beijing China, and back to New York. The intertwined narratives
unfold in at least four languages – English, French, Mandarin Chinese,
Ghomala – serving as a clinical and scientific examination of the
various dimensions of prejudice, language, deriving analytical insights
that bind persuasion, risk, prejudice, rewards and punishments in the
decision making process. It also features two heart wrenching love
stories that grip hearts and reveal characters of great humanity. This
is a universal story of the travails of the misunderstood and
unappreciated underdog, who nonetheless keeps on soldiering to usher in a
better world.
